Colin didn't have a specific ringtone for his boss, but he knew who was calling nevertheless. "Hello?" he said, more to keep from creeping Bradley out than anything else.

"Colin. Hey, buddy. I got that story you filed last night. You got a second?" Bradley always sounded stoned. Colin wouldn't have been surprised if Bradley were sneaking out back to smoke up during his extended periods away from his desk, but it wasn't his problem. As long as Bradley wasn't driving, Colin didn't care.

"Sure." Colin pulled up the relevant document on his laptop. In theory, he should be eating with some of the guys or socializing. Neither of those had happened yet. Neither of those was going to happen. He might as well get some work done. "What's going on?"

"Well, it's great work, as usual. I guess I'm just surprised by the subject. Is a story about anti-omega bias and toxic masculinity among the SEALs really a great story to lead off this assignment?"

"Well, it's the story I had, so I ran with it. Sending an omega into this environment really wasn't the best, or safest, decision. You should pull me from this assignment."

Bradley scoffed. "You went to Somalia to cover attacks there. And you covered ISIS attacks in Syria. You can handle being saddled with a couple of SEALs for a while."

Colin slumped down in his seat. "This is ridiculous. I'm actually afraid for my personal safety. You want to send me into a war zone, surrounded by guys who legitimately want me dead. Why am I the only one who sees this as problematic?"

"They don't want you dead, they just don't have an easy time with the whole civilian thing. Lots of other guys in this project are reporting the same kind of problem." Bradley yawned. "It's okay, Colin. Everyone's going through the same thing, you know? And it's hardly breaking news that a bunch of guys in the military are being all macho about something, you know?"

"It's more than just being macho, Bradley. One of them is a guy I've known since we were kids. We've never had a problem about the whole alpha and omega thing, but when he found out I was going out with them he outright told me he didn't think they'd be able to control themselves and sending me was just asking for trouble. I mean really. This guy was my best friend, and that's what he has to say."

Bradley whistled. "That's intense. I'm sorry, brah. I don't know what to tell you, except now you have to do the story."

"I'm so glad you understand—wait, what?"

Bradley sniffed. "Yeah, brah. You've got to do the story, stay the course, finish the assignment. It's the only way to prove to those sons of bitches that you're every bit as capable and as good as they are, you know? Like a giant middle finger to the alpha establishment."

Colin pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not how this works. I'm not sure you quite understand how any of this works."

Bradley chuckled. "I understand you've got a choice, brah. I can't make you finish this assignment."

"Good." Colin sat up straighter.

"All I can do is point out that if you don't finish your assignment you won't get paid. And you won't get any assignments. You know, ever. What's the word I'm looking for here? Oh, right. Fired. You'll be fired. That's it." Bradley heaved a mighty sigh. "Look, I respect your concerns, but there's no room on this paper, or any paper, for a reporter who refuses assignments. And frankly, every reporter knows when they go out there that the job has risks, okay? We're not out there to make friends. We're not out there to cozy up to people and cuddle. We're out there to hit hard, and tell the truth to the American people, and to the world. We can't do that if we're mincing around worrying about the delicate sensibilities of a bunch of babies who haven't learned to accept reality yet. Am I clear?"

Colin set his jaw. "Crystal."

"Excellent. So either you'll keep sending in dispatches or you'll send in your resignation, but I'll be seeing something in writing within the next few days. No hard feelings."

"You'll see something, all right." Colin hung up and stared at his computer screen. How in the hell was he supposed to give Bradley a story if his subjects didn't have any intention of giving him the time of day?

The next day he went to the base, the same as he had for the past couple of weeks. None of the SEALs would even look at him, but Colin was getting used to that by now. He'd been trying to start conversations and walked into a brick wall, but he was going to try something else this time.

He knew one of the SEALs, Chief Petty Officer Tom Fitzpatrick, had been sent off to Nebraska of all places as part of a criminal investigation. If none of the SEALs would talk to him, he would ask some other people. He had plenty of connections in law enforcement, and those connections had other connections. Fitzpatrick was connected to the arrest of Jake Baudin, and the investigation that had taken him off to Nebraska almost had to involve Baudin in some way, but Colin needed to prove it.

He sent messages to all of his contacts, even as he put his shoulder to the grindstone and got to work with the rest of the platoon. This stuff, the training, wasn't going to make much of a story—not yet, anyway. When it was all over he could do a retrospective on the life of a SEAL or something, but until then he just had to keep going through it.

His feelers bore fruit by the time he got back to his hotel room. The Nebraska State Police had been pulled into a case dating back over a decade, and it might wind up going federal. The case Fitzpatrick had been called home to deal with should have involved local law enforcement as a matter of courtesy, because that was just the way things worked. Colin understood that. Apparently, though, the Master at Arms requested that the Nebraska State Police become involved soon after the initial arrest. They didn't trust the local sheriff's department, or so it seemed.

Colin shook his head. It all seemed far-fetched, like a telenovela.

Would Ed be mad that he'd gone with this story? Maybe. Did Colin care? He had to admit he did. He shouldn't care. He hated himself for caring, but there would never be a point when he didn't care what Ed thought. Colin's heart might ache at the thought of hurting the man he loved, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from doing what he needed to do.

After all, he needed this job. And he wasn't betraying any confidences. Chief had mentioned the Baudin thing in front of him, and the rest had been easy enough to find. Sure, Colin had privileged information. He knew who Fitzpatrick was and who Baudin was, before he got to the job. Their names had come up after he'd gotten there too, so it wasn't like he was just vomiting up everything he and Ed had ever talked about.

No, he was on the verge of chickening out because he didn't want to upset the man he loved.

He pushed all that aside. Ed had made his choice. Colin had to move forward. He wrote up a draft of the story, fingers stabbing the keys as his humiliation and rage channeled itself into action. Then he went to sleep.

He spent time the next day, in between training exercises, on fact checking. The great thing about being an outcast in the workplace was that no one cared if he worked through lunch. After lunch, he went right back to work. When he got back to the hotel that night, he submitted the story to Bradley.

It hit with the morning edition the next day. Bradley had made some quick editorial changes, and he'd done some fact checking and gotten some references checked, but Colin wasn't worried about that. He was confident in his sources.

He was expecting the first blow that came. When Tinker, one of the SEALs, stormed up to him at morning briefing and took a swing at him, Colin was ready and ducked. The punch hit the Texan SEAL, Van Heel, square in the jaw. Colin hadn't been expecting that, because he hadn't heard Van Heel sneaking up behind him.

What could he have meant by that?

Whatever Van Heel's intentions might have been, he got into the fight with Tinker now. Colin wasn't going to look that gift horse in the mouth. He slid off to the side, only to have Ed grab him by the shoulders and shove him into the wall.

Colin hit the wall hard enough that the impact made a sound. He didn't hit his head, which he guessed counted for a lot. "I told you this would happen!" Ed's handsome face twisted into a mask of hate.

Colin ignored the way his heart was shredding. His own anger made a fantastic anesthetic. Later it would wear off, and he'd cry it out in the privacy of his hotel room. "What, that your asshole friends would try to assault me, miss, and get into a fistfight about it before the day even started?" He tilted his head, just a little. "No, sorry, can't say that ever came up in conversation."

Ed raised his hand, like he was going to slap Colin. He put it down with a slow kind of deliberateness that spoke volumes. "I told you that putting a single omega like you in the middle of a pack of young alphas would cause chaos." He stuck two fingers between his lips and whistled.

Van Heel and Tinker stopped fighting and glared at each other. "Siddown, assholes," Ed told them, "before Chief comes in here."

"Chief's already in here." Chief stood in the open doorway. "Van Heel, Tinker, Adami, you're all on KP for the next two weeks."

"Why me?" Ed pressed his hands to his chest. "I broke it up!"

"Do you really think I didn't just see you put your hands on a civilian? I was born at night, but not last night." He shook his head and made his way to the front of the room, holding his coffee.

Colin's cheeks stung at the dig about being a civilian. He was a civilian, and he couldn't pretend he wasn't, but being singled out that way pissed him off.

"He started it, Chief." Buelen pointed at Colin. "Or did you not see the paper this morning?"

"Oh, I saw it." Chief sat down at his desk and stretched his legs out. "I didn't see anything factually inaccurate, did you?"

The SEALs looked at each other, all except for Ed. Ed just glared at Colin.

"Well, no, Chief." Hopper tugged at his collar. Hopper was a hot guy. If Colin weren't already in love with someone else, he'd have thought about going after Hopper. Of course, the whole "treat the civilian like shit" thing was kind of a turn off. "But he went and published a story about all of this personal crap!"

"It ain't personal once law enforcement gets involved, boys." Chief raised an eyebrow. "Once Baudin decided to involve law enforcement, it stopped being personal. But somehow it's Church's fault, because he did his job, and not Baudin's fault, because Baudin went after Fitzpatrick's omega?" Chief shook his head and slurped his coffee. "Seems to me like you boys need to reevaluate your priorities. And maybe add another five miles to your morning run. Also, you're going on a training run for the next two weeks. Arizona. Church, I'll pick you up at your hotel in the morning. We're also getting a new guy, Baudin's replacement."

The men exchanged glances again. Then a Black SEAL stood up. "No one can replace Baudin, Chief."

"Fair enough," Chief said after considering his words. "Especially since Miazga just graduated BUDS. He's new at this. But he's coming, and we're going on a training run with him, and that's the end of it." He winked at Colin. "Seems to me like this is a good story to cover, right? Integrating a new guy into a SEAL platoon is probably a more positive topic for an in-depth investigation than some sordid true-crime stuff that just happens to have a SEAL at the center of it."

Colin forced a thin smile onto his face. As truth would have it, he'd rather cover a story about integrating a new SEAL into the platoon than about Fitzpatrick's unfortunate history, but he hadn't had that opportunity. He didn't appreciate Chief's attempt to shame him, either.

But he forced the smile, and nodded once, because that was what was expected. When the team headed out to get their run in, he made sure he ran faster than all of them, too.

Ed didn't speak to him again until much later that night, after Colin had gone back to the hotel and told Bradley what the plan was. They hadn't spoken by phone in a good while, but he called now. "I want you to know how incredibly pissed off I am," Ed said by way of opening.

Colin ran his tongue against his teeth. "Yeah, I picked up on that when you threw me into the wall. Do you feel more like a man now that you've given an omega bruises from his shoulders to his tailbone?"

Ed made a choking sound. "Wait, what?"

"Dude. Did you think I was made of memory foam or some shit, Ed? Own your crap!" Colin flopped back down onto the bed. It hurt. It didn’t hurt as much as fighting with Ed.

"If you can't take a little rough stuff you shouldn't be here," Ed barked. "Which, I should remind you, I told you when this whole mess started."

"That's a false equivalence. I've survived a hell of a lot worse than getting tossed around by an alpha who can't understand he's not in charge." Colin snarled his words out. Something inside him screamed at him to shut up, that Ed would never love him if he lashed out like this, but he ignored it. Ed would never love him anyway. "That's not the point. The point is I shouldn't have to worry about that shit from guys who are supposed to be on my side, and I sure as hell shouldn't have to worry about it from you, of all people." He clenched his jaw so hard it ached. "You know, I tried a few weeks ago, once again, to get pulled off this case. My editor threatened to fire me."

"You should have let him!" Ed seethed. "You don't belong here!"

"Well, I'm stuck here until the assignment's over. And when it is, you'll never see me again." He hung up, turned off his ringer, and cried.

* * *

Ed waited at base, in the back of the bus, for the rest of the team to show up. He couldn't get comfortable. It was like he was sitting on hot metal, with his bare ass. He told himself he was waiting for the rest of the team, but as they trickled onto the bus he had to admit he wasn't concerned about them. The only name repeating through his brain was Colin.

Colin had hung up on him, again. Colin never wanted to see him again. Why couldn't Colin understand that Ed was just trying to protect him?

Hopper slid into the seat beside him, and Ed nearly took his head off. Hopper was Hopper, though. He didn't get mad. He just gave his usual easygoing laugh and relaxed. "Dude, man. Getting chewed out by Chief really threw you for a loop, huh?"

Ed took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. He had no right to flip out about Colin and Hopper. For one thing, he and Colin weren't a thing. For another, Colin and Hopper weren't a thing. "Sorry. I'm just uptight about the whole thing."

"Yeah, I figured that out after you just about put that pretty little reporter through a wall." Hopper chortled. "So you know him, huh?"

Ed froze. "How do you know that?"

Hopper rolled his eyes and swatted Ed's arm. "Come on, dude. You said as much yesterday, when you told him you'd said something before. It's cool. I get why you wouldn't have wanted to make an issue of it, but really, it's not a big deal. No one's going to get mad you know a guy who's a reporter. It's not like you didn't tell everyone how you felt when you, you know, damn near put him through a wall."

Ed tried to hide his burning face with one hand. "Aw, man, can we not talk about that?"

"I think we probably have to, buddy." Hopper put a hand on his shoulder. "You were pretty heated. I mean when it was Tinker and Van Heel, it was different. It was a stranger. But this, this is a guy you know. An omega you know." He met Ed's eyes and left it there, a pregnant pause.

"He was my best friend." Ed didn't want to say anything, but he had to. He needed Hopper's trust. "We'd been best friends since kindergarten. I called him up last night, and he said after this assignment he never wants to see me again."

"Wow." Hopper blew out a low whistle. "That's pretty intense, man. I mean I can't blame him, but you know, I can't blame you either. So I've got to know. I mean you've got a lot of anger there about him, you know? Are you sure you guys never…"

Ed looked up at the bus' metal ceiling. "For Christ's sake, Hopper, don't you think that's the kind of thing I'd remember?"

"Hell yeah." Hopper spoke with feeling.

Ed growled.

Hopper held his hands up. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't do anything now, anyway. I mean publishing something about Baudin was completely out of line. And to be honest, I just don't like having reporters around, you know?" He slouched in his seat. "What's there to report on? I mean, 'SEAL farts, film at eleven?’ The interesting stuff isn't anything he can talk about, and the rest is just…boring. Hurry up and wait."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, he doesn't want to be here any more than we want him to be here." Ed took off his hat and ran his fingers through his messy brown hair. "I guess this isn't the scoop of a lifetime top brass thinks it is. Maybe alphas aren't as much fun to be around as we think we are."

"I'm a joy, man. I'm a joy." Hopper grinned and straightened out his fatigues.

Chief and Colin jogged up the steps. Colin met Ed's eyes, briefly, and his mouth hardened. He turned around and slid into a seat in the front of the bus. Chief held Ed's gaze for a little longer before he sat between Colin and the rest of the crew.

Ed got the message. There would be words later.

They drove to a nearby airfield, where the Air Force helpfully flew them out to Arizona. The flight would last for about four hours, give or take, and then they'd take a bus to wherever it was they were going. It wasn't exactly a first-class arrangement. They didn't have snacks or an in-flight movie. They didn't have screaming babies or strangers falling asleep on them and drooling, either, so Ed figured he had the better part of that arrangement.

Chief summoned Ed from his comfortable seat with Hopper and Kulkarni after they'd been in the air for about an hour. He'd known this was coming; it was better to get it over with than not. He followed his superior to the back of the plane, where a bunch of baggage and supplies had been stashed. At least Chief wanted to give Ed some privacy before he ripped him a new one.

Ed stood at attention and looked straight ahead while he waited for Chief to start, but Chief just stared at him for a good long while. Finally, he spoke. "You know," he said, after a moment, "I'm surprised at you. Are you just picking up where Baudin left off?"

Ed dropped his jaw. "That's not okay, Chief."

"Neither is physically assaulting omegas." Chief glared at him. "And for the record yes, I know exactly what Tinker was going to do. And yes, I know exactly what Van Heel was planning to do. That's between me and them. They're being disciplined, but they don't have a prior connection with Church."

"It's not like that." Ed's mouth went dry.

"It's exactly like that. Or did you not actually take your hands and shove Church into the wall hard enough to leave bruises all over the back half of his torso?" Chief crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm very willing to hear your explanation."

Ed bit the inside of his cheek. "Look, Chief. He doesn't belong here."

"No. No, he does not. I can't do anything about it, and he can't do anything about it, so here he is. And by the way, before you try to give me some song and dance about how he's just not trying hard enough, he went to his editor and told him he's concerned for his safety while he's embedded with us. An omega went to his superior and told them he's concerned for his safety while he's in the company of my men. That includes you, Adami." A muscle in Chief's jaw twitched. "What do you think happened then?"

Something deep in Ed's gut twisted. "I'm guessing they didn't pull him from the assignment."

"They did not, and don't be a smartass or you'll be on KP until the day you die. What the editor did was call his boss, and then he called his connections in the PR office, who called Brass, who called DeWitt's boss' boss, who called DeWitt, who called me. Shit rolls downhill, son. And you're about as downhill as it gets."

"Chief, I understand that orders are orders, but let's be real. Omegas don't belong in combat positions. They're supposed to be home safe and cherished, not getting shot at in some godforsaken sandbox." Ed closed his eyes and set his jaw. Chief couldn't change the assignment at thirty five thousand feet even if he wanted to, but Ed had to try. It was like a compulsion.

"And you cherished him so much he's going to have to be sleeping on his stomach for weeks." Chief poked him in the chest. "You did that. You don't get to do some kind of song and dance about how precious omegas are and then throw them around. Do I make myself clear?"

Ed bit his tongue. He had done that, hadn't he? He'd hurt Colin, the love of his life. And then he'd called him up and tried to yell at him about it.

Ed had never felt lower. He was no better than his father.

He picked his head up. "Crystal, Chief."

"Good. Now go sit down. Stay the fuck away from Church. Try not to say anything or do anything to embarrass this platoon or the SEALs and maybe, just maybe, we can all get through this intact." Chief waved his hand. "Send Van Heel back. He's next on my shit list."

"Aye aye." Ed had never been so grateful to be dismissed in his life. He ran up to Van Heel and delivered his orders, along with the warning about Chief's mood. Then he retreated to his seat and his thoughts.

Most of the guys, or at least the smarter guys, liked to play guessing games with their training. They were always training, it was part of what SEALs did, and since their area of specialization was supposed to be Europe and the Middle East their potential deployment sites were limited. If they were going to Alaska to train, for example, they were probably deploying someplace northern. Arizona meant someplace in North Africa or the Middle East, or rarely sub-Saharan Africa.

Most of their recent deployments had been to North Africa. Ed was willing to bet money it would go that way again. He waited until they got their marching orders before he speculated, though. This time the game was pretty simple, or at least it sounded simple on the surface. They had to go through the desert to capture a flag and bring it back, with all hands accounted for.

* * *

As soon as they were turned loose—just them in the desert, with Church as a silent and unwelcome witness—he turned to Kelly. "What's your best bet for the next field trip? I'm guessing Libya again."

Miazga, the new guy, wrinkled his nose. "Why Libya? And why again? Do you guys go there a lot?"

"Feels like it." Tinker made a face. "I think Chief's got a girl over there."

Miazga frowned and leaned forward. "He's an alpha. Are you sure he's got a girl?"

Floyd scoffed and shook his head. "FNG."

"It's a joke, man. He doesn't really have a girl there." Kelly kept his face neutral. Ed had no idea how. "But yeah, we do have a lot of trips to Libya lately. A lot of human trafficking routes go through Libya, and that's a huge part of our job so yeah, I'm thinking about buying a condo in Tripoli." He met Miazga's eyes. "That's a standard issue SEAL joke, but you have to have been out of BUDS for at least three years before you get it."

Miazga's cheeks flushed pink, and he went back to focusing on the sand in front of them.

Lupo didn't think the next deployment was going to be to Libya. He said as much as they dug their way through the hard-packed earth. "They wouldn't be sending us to Libya with that kind of dead weight in our baggage," he said, jerking a thumb toward Colin. "Those human trafficking jobs are too volatile, and they're not going to risk his soft ass getting killed. Especially not now that his bitch ass went and cried to his damn editor."

Ed ground his teeth. He'd been thinking more or less along the same lines, but hearing someone else be so crude about Colin pissed him off. He had half a mind to go back there and punch Lupo's lights out.

Colin didn't need that kind of defending. For one thing, he'd put himself into this situation, knowing exactly what to expect as a result. For another, he was more than capable of taking care of himself. "I'll have you know, Lupo, that this 'soft ass' lapped you twice in training. Who's the bitch now?" Colin didn't even look back.

The words were dangerous. Another omega wouldn't have dared to say them. Another omega hadn't faced down terrorists and come out on top.

Lupo's eyes bulged for a moment, and then he grinned. "True," he said, hanging his head with shame. "Still, that doesn't mean they're going to be keen to send you into a combat zone like that. If your ass, be it firm, bitchy, or soft, gets killed it's going to be a problem for the whole Navy. Nah, I think they're going to send us back into someplace like France or Spain."

"I liked France." Kelly shrugged.

"You should." Iniguez snickered. "You met your husband there."

They bantered around a little bit before they decided they had to get down to business. They were here to integrate the new guy, after all, and to make sure Colin didn't die while they were out in Libya or wherever.

The training exercise wasn't the most grueling they'd ever been on, but it had its bumps. Colin might be an Olympian, and he might be doing triathlons now or whatever it was he did to keep looking hot, but he wasn't used to activity of this type, in this environment. He never complained or asked for a break, but Chief and DeWitt made it clear that they had concerns.

Ed didn't approach Colin. He knew better, but he could see the fire in Colin's eye. He'd die of heatstroke before he showed weakness in front of any of these guys at this point. That included DeWitt or Chief. He thought about how he could approach the problem, and his eyes lit on Miazga.

"Look," he said, buttonholing the new guy and dragging him off. "We had a bit of a spat, us guys and Church. He doesn't trust us, but you're the new guy. And you're trying to fit in here, just like he is. So if you sneak him some water or something, every once in awhile, or even just check in on him, it's not weird. And it's not him looking weak in front of 'the guys' because you haven't really bonded with us yet, and you're not part of the mess that happened before."

Light dawned on Miazga's face. "Ah, I get it." He tapped his nose. "I'll be subtle."

Ed privately thought Miazga would be about as subtle as a brick, but at least someone would be checking in on Colin who wouldn't get into a fight with him. That was what mattered, right?

They caught their flag, and the path back to the rendezvous seemed a lot shorter than the way out. They all stank to high heaven, but since they all stank together no one seemed to mind much. They guzzled water when they got back to the bus, and they headed back to the plane and flew home with no fanfare at all.

When they got back to base, Ed had almost forgotten about the fight with Colin. Then he saw Colin getting into a Lyft, bound for God alone knew where, and everything came crashing back home.